In 1984, with a start-up capital of 1,000 dollars, Michael Dell, a 19-year-old student at the University of Texas, registered in the United States "Dell Computer Coporation" (Dell Computer Coporation). Although Dell was still unimpressive at that time, but he was ambitious, with the help of direct sales model to compete with the then IBM, Compaq and other giants. In the ridicule of others, today, Michael Dell is worth 17 billion dollars, with 40,000 employees of Dell Inc. and its sales are close to 40 billion dollars. The company's revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2004 was $9.5 billion, up 18% year-on-year, with a cash turnover of 38 days, a record for the start-up world. At the end of the fiscal quarter, Dell regained its position as the world's PC market leader, with a market share of 1.2% more than the second place. It is with direct sales and zero inventory, Michael Dell in the personal computer industry set off a revolution that can be called a miracle, with the help of these two tools, Dell not only to maintain the operation of low-cost, but also created a very high degree of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Dell can go this far in the strong market, there must be his superiority. I believe that a large part of this is attributable to its special but appropriate corporate culture - as if the marketing model, in fact, there is no stereotype, the right is the best. Although its rise and leadership, inseparable from its successful direct marketing model, but when the enterprise on a big stage, direct marketing may just become a tool, it should be a high degree of enthusiasm for customers and the desire for good performance. Let them strive to practice direct sales, to implement zero inventory as well as personalization on a large scale. Dell believes that basing business purely on cost and price is never a permanent advantage, sooner or later someone will come up with a cheaper product that costs less to manufacture. What really matters is maintaining customer as well as employee loyalty -- and perhaps the truth is that Dell has a long way to go when it comes to employee loyalty.
I, never satisfied, the pursuit of "winning"
While Dell has become synonymous with success and miracles, Dell is still like a troubled college boy, with a sense of urgency and determination to run Dell. He says, "I still think we're the challenger, and I think we're still on the offensive." Yes, he does demand that of himself, and he carries that spirit into every corner of Dell. The company's productivity is approaching the level of generating $1 million in turnover per employee. It's almost twice as much as Hewlett-Packard and three times as much as IBM, but they still don't know enough.
Dell and Rollins planned an absolutely ambitious financial goal: to reach $60 billion in operating income by 2006. And that figure is double the company's 2001 turnover. Of course, the company must develop generations of leaders if it is to try to move forward with the times. So far, its approach to learning has been effective, combining goals with employee grants and bonuses, and, more importantly, methods to instill the concept of "ownership" in its employees and to further enhance their talents so that they can realize their full potential. One of these methods is the willingness and ability to learn. Dell doesn't just ask its employees to learn, it picks a good place to start, i.e., it asks them to learn from a place of asking questions. (Perhaps this approach is too harsh, so too few people can adapt to this harsh environment. (Many senior executives from IBM and INTEL have jumped ship.) In fact, the company's success depends not only on the "direct business model", but more importantly, there is also a kind of "winning" (winning culture) culture in the company that matches this model. More importantly, there is a "winning" culture within the company that matches this model. There are two core elements to this culture, one is to be passionate about the customer and the other is to be confident in performance. This culture creates a great sense of pressure on employees, prompting them to learn hard and strive forward.
Two, pragmatism and speed
Dell runs in a very pragmatic way. Dell often asks, "What is the most efficient way to accomplish this?" In this way, Dell rejects all possibilities of generating bureaucracy, and this approach also provides learning opportunities. Dell stipulates that salespeople must install their own computers, which not only allows employees to really feel uneducated in computers when the customer will encounter any problems in installing the system, but salespeople will also have a more accurate experience of the products they sell. This will help customers decide which product to buy with the information they need.
At the same time, Dell has fully demonstrated the competitive advantage of "speed". "Involvement in every detail" may create some system conflicts, but it allows the upper management to make quick decisions under the condition of understanding the situation, and the whole company does not allow any time to be wasted. The entire company is not allowed to waste a single drop of time.
Three, positive communication
Dell to a categorical attitude to face all the mistakes, and frankly admit that "we have encountered a problem, we must make corrections. One of Dell's mantras is: "Don't whitewash". This phrase means "don't try to glorify the bad things". Almost all of Dell's employees can speak to the basic concepts that underlie the company's business because the leadership has taken the time to communicate with them so that they understand the situation, what is being planned, and what each individual should do in order for Bamboo to reach its goals. Dale never puts on airs when he speaks, and neither do the employees of the company, who are allowed to question any issue and even chastise their bosses. Everyone is equal before this principle. Once Dell in his annual summary of his own, employees complained that he was too cold, for which Dell apologized to them and promised to express his feelings better in the future.
Four, the pace of consistency, neat and tidy, the "little me" into the "big me"
Dell believes that to establish or maintain a healthy, competitive culture, the simplest and best way is through the same goal, the strategy is the same with the company's employees to become the same. Dell believes that the easiest and best way to build or maintain a healthy, competitive culture is by having the same goals, the same strategy, and the same employees as partners. They believe that no matter which stage of the business cycle the company is in, the introduction of talented people should be the highest priority. However, when employees really enter Dell, whether they are newly hired employees or the company's management, they must be completely consistent with the company's philosophy and goals, adjusting the team to the same goals, to the same pace, neat and tidy. At the same time, Dell has established the same reward system throughout the company in an effort to promote the development and growth of Dell.
Dell has adopted a team approach, allowing employees to help each other, temporarily abandoning the "little me", because only the "big river is full" in exchange for the "small river has water! ". Dell found that there will be some weak team members in the team, although the purpose of some people is only to obtain greater personal interests and go to spend time and energy to assist other colleagues who do not keep up with the progress. But this also allows Dell's management team to work together in a personal sphere*** in pursuit of progress. This type of team operation can be said to be an alternative method of cohesion of the company's employees. He is not asking employees to avoid holding each other back, nor is the healthy competition generated by employees to reduce the hook, focusing on employees to focus wholeheartedly on each other's growth.
Fifth, thrifty
Dell's thrifty embodied in two aspects, one is never set up a celebration. Dell believes that the celebration will promote complacency, and this is at full speed ahead of Dell is never allowed to happen, because pride will fail. Someone once proposed to display the company's well-known products in the company's lobby, but was rejected by Dell. He thought it was the way of museums, because only "museums are concerned with the past". When a team has a good news, he will send a mass e-mail to celebrate, give the necessary comments or appropriate praise. Dell's own motto is "celebrate in a billionth of a second, then start something new." The other side of the coin is Dell's approach to new business. If Dell believes that the new cooperation business performance is not satisfactory, he will quickly terminate the business, this is Dell different from other competitors, said Edward Zander, the former president of SUN Electronic Computer Company, "can like him to create a company at such a young age, and continue to promote it to such an extent is really incredible. People who have been in an industry for 15, 20 years become overly disciplined, and he's an exception."
But their frugality has to some extent put Dell in a dilemma when it comes to innovation. The frugal way of doing business has stretched it to the limit in product development and investing in future technologies, especially when compared with its competitors. Even in the midst of a technological downturn, IBM's research and development expenditures in 2002 were $4.75 billion, or 5.9 percent of the company's turnover. And Hewlett-Packard's R&D spending was $3.3 billion, or 5.8% of turnover, while Dell? A scant $450 million, or 1.3% of its turnover. Rivals say this style of business is preventing Dell from expanding beyond personal computers, especially into promising areas such as digital video cameras and data-processing-capable applications.
But whatever the assessment, Dell has embarked on another journey in its quest for perfection. Michael Dell has already ventured into printers, networking equipment, laptops and technical services with another company, and into the ultra-competitive consumer electronics market with a handheld digital music player, an online music store and a flat-screen TV. Dell will certainly rely on its hand heavy direct sales and inventory of two major tools, with the never-quite-enough corporate culture, to recreate the glory achieved in the field of personal computers. We'll see what happens!
Additionally, the history of Dell: (I hope to be helpful to the owner)
1984 l Michael Dell founded Dell Computer Corporation
1985 l launched the first self-designed personal computer - Turbo. Turbo using Intel 8088 processor, computing speed of 8Mbps. processor at 8MHz
1987 l Becomes the first computer systems company to offer next-business-day on-site service l Opens office in the United Kingdom and begins to expand internationally
1988 l Dell goes public with an initial public offering of 3.5 million new shares at $8.50 each
1989 l Launches first Dell notebook computer
The first Dell notebook computer
The first Dell notebook computer is introduced. 1990 l Established a manufacturing facility in Limerick, Ireland to supply the EMEA market
1992 l Named a Fortune 500 company for the first time by Fortune Magazine
1993 l Became one of the top five computer systems manufacturers in the world. l Established offices in Australia and Japan to formally enter the Asia-Pacific market
In the first year, the company was named one of the top five computer systems manufacturers in the world. l Established the first Dell computer system manufacturer in the world. Entered the Asia-Pacific market
1995 l Dell stock, initially priced at $8.50, rises to $100 prior to the spin-off
1996 l Opens Asia-Pacific manufacturing center in Penang, Malaysia l Begins to focus on the Web server market through the Web site www.dell.com销售戴尔计算机产品l l Becomes one of the Standard & Poor's 500 constituent stocks.
1997 l 10 million Dell computers roll off the production line l Common stock rises to $1,000 per share prior to spin-off l Launches first Dell workstation system l Online revenue jumps from $1 million per day at the beginning of the year to more than $4 million per day
1998 l Expanded U.S. and European manufacturing facilities and opened a Xiamen, China, manufacturing and customer service center l Launched PowerVault Storage Center l Launched PowerVault storage system products
1999 l Opened a manufacturing and customer service center in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A.
1998 l Expanded manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe.